The first sentence of Section 1 of the 14th Amendment states: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."
The part about "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" is often left out when citing the 14th as justification for birthright citizenship. The meaning of almost any section of the Constitution could be changed by leaving out or adding words or phrases, but that is not the correct way to interpret a legal document. All words have meaning. I believe President Trump is correct in his assessment and the issue will likely have to be resolved by the Supreme Court.
It is interesting to note that Native Americans were not granted U.S. citizenship until 1924 when the Indian Citizenship Act was signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge. That was almost 56 years after ratification of the 14th Amendment. They were clearly born in the United States so jurisdiction was the issue making the law necessary.
Exactly. The language must be legally challenged and clarified by SCOTUS. Long overdue. An EO would be one way to get it there and force the court to finally take the matter up. I pray we have had some top notch attorneys already working on building some water tight arguments because we know SCOTUS will try to wiggle out if they can and not resolve the issue.
Like a lot of things Trump is going to do, this will also probably end up at the Supreme Court. They'll once again have to say that the law, or in this case Amendment, means what it says.
The phrase reads, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof...
The "and" is there for a reason. It implies that it's possible for only one of those things to be true.
It also implies that both cases must be true before one is considered a U.S. citizen.
So: You could be born in the U.S. but not subject to its jurisdiction.
As in: Your parents are citizens of one or more other nations and therefore subject to that jurisdiction. That makes you, as their child, also subject to that same jurisdiction. Which is not the United States.
That's why just being born on U.S. soil is not enough to make you a citizen.
The first sentence of Section 1 of the 14th Amendment states: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."
The part about "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" is often left out when citing the 14th as justification for birthright citizenship. The meaning of almost any section of the Constitution could be changed by leaving out or adding words or phrases, but that is not the correct way to interpret a legal document. All words have meaning. I believe President Trump is correct in his assessment and the issue will likely have to be resolved by the Supreme Court.
It is interesting to note that Native Americans were not granted U.S. citizenship until 1924 when the Indian Citizenship Act was signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge. That was almost 56 years after ratification of the 14th Amendment. They were clearly born in the United States so jurisdiction was the issue making the law necessary.
Exactly. The language must be legally challenged and clarified by SCOTUS. Long overdue. An EO would be one way to get it there and force the court to finally take the matter up. I pray we have had some top notch attorneys already working on building some water tight arguments because we know SCOTUS will try to wiggle out if they can and not resolve the issue.
Like a lot of things Trump is going to do, this will also probably end up at the Supreme Court. They'll once again have to say that the law, or in this case Amendment, means what it says.
The phrase reads, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof...
The "and" is there for a reason. It implies that it's possible for only one of those things to be true.
It also implies that both cases must be true before one is considered a U.S. citizen.
So: You could be born in the U.S. but not subject to its jurisdiction.
As in: Your parents are citizens of one or more other nations and therefore subject to that jurisdiction. That makes you, as their child, also subject to that same jurisdiction. Which is not the United States.
That's why just being born on U.S. soil is not enough to make you a citizen.